This invention relates to a blank firing attachment for a recoil operated gun.
Recoil operated machine guns using the well known Browning short recoil principle rely on the recoil generated by the expulsion of a standard projectile to generate the forces required to operate the machine gun mechanism. When the gun is required to fire blanks a problem arises if the gun is to function in the fully automatic fire mode. As there is no projectile propelled along the barrel of the gun and the blank cartridge typically only has a small charge of fast powder to provide a loud report there is therefore very little recoil generated.
Accordingly it is known to provide a blank firing attachment which when mounted on a recoil operated machine gun provides a simulation of the recoil which would normally be generated when shooting live ammunition. The attachment therefore results in the automatic mechanism of the gun operating in a normal manner even though blank ammunition is being used.
Such attachments, however, have suffered from a variety of problems ranging from difficulty of installation to unreliability in use. Many of these problems arise from the attachments being of complex construction which requires a high level of maintenance, especially when the attachment is in use, to ensure correct and reliable operation.